A stretch

Two things are certain about the hiring of pollster Kellyanne Conway as Donald Trump’s new campaign manager. The first is that Trump finally has a skilled professional to direct his messaging portfolio. The second is that Trump should be forced to confront the profound disconnect between the essence of his personalized campaign and the wisdom in the book Conway co-authored with Celinda Lake back in 2005, “What Women Really Want.”

That book, which emerged out of an analysis of two in-depth polls of American women, remains essential to understanding an electorate that has grown from women casting 8 million more votes than men in the 2000 presidential race to just under 12 million more women voting than men in 2008 and 2012.

American women are so numerous and diverse they don’t have a single set of concerns — but there are common themes and approaches that rightly resonate.

The central theme of Conway’s book was spotlighted in the preface by Catherine Whitney: That, while the national political debate was becoming more heated, divisive and partisan, there was emerging a “point of commonality” among the female majority in the American electorate. Whitney wrote of the “the emergence of a new vital center — a united power base among women that was reshaping America more than politics.”

Conway and Lake persuasively go on to argue that women have been using their purchasing power, their exploding achievement in higher education, their comfort with internet technology and their entrepreneurial streak to “compress the generation gaps” among women seeking a better balance between work and family.

They predict a phenomenon that we are now seeing play out in current polling data: “The decline of region as a key determinant of women’s voting behavior,” replaced by a “HERS Agenda” centered around health, retirement and security concerns.

They also understand that the emerging sense of unity among women increasingly rejects the easy politics of division.

Had Trump read Conway’s book and internalized its advice, he would neither have mocked a disabled reporter, nor crassly attacked Carly Fiorina’s looks, nor uttered his vulgar attack on Fox News’ Megyn Kelly back in the primaries. Nor would he have attacked Gold Star mother Ghazala Khan’s silence. He would not be questioning Hillary Clinton’s physical stamina and mental fitness — not when all voters, especially women, regularly see Clinton holding as many if not more campaign events per day than Trump.

Perhaps that explains why right after Conway’s arrival, Trump issued a vague scripted statement of “regret.”

Co-author of "What Women Really Want"

(Gerald Herbert/AP)

But women don’t respond only to personal tone. They care about policy. While a student of Conway’s book likely would have applauded Ivanka Trump’s convention speech, which tackled the substance of the workplace challenges facing women regarding pay equity and family leave, it is impossible not to see the gap between those concerns and Trump’s chronic inattention to those issues.

Following his daughter’s speech, the candidate made only a cursory attempt to speak to child-care policies. When he boasted that he provided onsite child-care services for employees at his hotels and resorts, the policies he cited turned out to be for paying guests, not employees. Oops.

Conway’s book proves conclusively that women are seeking a workplace enabling a fairer balance of work and parenting — one where it is no longer true that the “majority of women executives” feel “excluded from informal networks, left out of the loop of organizational politics, and regularly (face) stereotyped beliefs about their abilities.”

Remarkably, Trump has been silent on those concerns. Instead, he and his son have seemingly belittled the predicament facing victims of workplace sexual harassment, suggesting that those who face such illegal treatment are weak, and should seek other employment rather than filing complaints.

Is it any wonder that a massive gender gap is not only locking in Clinton leads in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio, but also putting her ahead in once-purple states like Colorado, North Carolina, Virginia and Florida?

Trump’s hiring of Kellyanne Conway is clearly meant to address his pressing electoral problems with women. But to any keen observer, his deficiencies only loom larger with her onboard.

Gyory is a political and strategic consultant at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP and an adjunct professor of political science at SUNY Albany.